What Are the Beliefs of the Reformed Faith?
- Dr. Michael A. Milton President, Faith for Living
- Updated Mar 14, 2022
The reformed faith is not a denomination. In fact, the reformed faith transcends Christian communities and includes groups from Anglican to Baptist, Congregationalist, and, of course, the denominational group most associated with the reformed faith: Presbyterians. All these groups are united by confessional commitments, a firm belief that the Cardinal doctrines that emerged from the great Reformation of the Church are, in fact, the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. In many ways, the reformed faith as it was espoused by John Calvin, John Knox, Thomas Cranmer, the Dutch Puritans, the English Puritans, and of course, the American Puritans like Jonathan Edwards, was intended to be a reform of faith and practice according to the Scriptures as it was exercised in the New Testament church and the early church. There are many articles that seek to describe the reformed faith according to its confessional standards. From the Westminster Confession of Faith to the three forms of unity to the confessions that Reformed Baptists look to, these articles rely heavily on, and appropriately, on the systematic truths of Scripture expressed in catechetical and confessional documents that were, often, hammered out on the crucible of false teaching and even political intrigue.
Some of these confessions, therefore, read with just a whiff of the aroma of polemical fires that forged the documents. I have spent a considerable amount of scholarship in my life studying these documents as well as how the truths of the reformed faith had been applied in history. However, that is not my goal in this article. I want to depart from a focus on the doctrines of the reformed faith as they were expressed in official confessions of faith, e.g., the Westminster confession of faith, and tell a story. This is the story of how one young man sought answers to the great existential questions of life — who am I, why am I here, who's in control of the universe, is there purpose to it all. I am that young man, or, I was that young man. I am older now. Yet, the excitement of spiritual and personal fulfillment that came as I heard the truths of the reformed faith expressed by Dr. D James Kennedy, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, and others, literally changed my life and instilled a worldview that has guided me throughout all the days of my life. So, I want to share with you, my readers, not merely the beliefs of the reformed faith according to an academic review of the main doctrines of the reformed faith, but rather how those doctrines changed my life. Years ago, Dr. D James Kennedy wrote a book called Truths That Transform. The book title became the name for his daily radio ministry, the place where I first heard these truths that transformed my life.
So what of the beliefs of the reformed faith? Here are the select doctrinal truths of the reformed faith that changed my thinking, my outlook, my worldview, my ethics, and most of all my faith and assurance of faith in the Scriptures and my wholehearted dedication and worship of the central person of God's revelation, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1. The beliefs of the Reformed Faith always begin with the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures as the very Word of the Living God.
James Montgomery Boice (1938 – 2000), the late Reformed theologian, author, and pastor reminded us of Martin Luther’s estimation of the nature of the Bible: “Luther said of God’s Word, ‘The Bible is alive. It speaks to me. It has feet and it runs after me, it has hands and it lays hold of me. It is neither antique nor modern—it is eternal.” Thus, the taxonomy of Biblical-doctrinal truths of the Reformed Faith begins with the supremacy (and sufficiency) of the Word of God.
The Reformed Faith differs from some evangelicals on the nature of Scripture. The Reformed Faith conviction about the supremacy of Holy Scripture is this: everything that we know about God in his message to us is to be found in this special revelation, this "Word from another world," as the Reformed systematic theologian, the late Dr. Robert L. Reymond, so eloquently put it. The supremacy of Scripture is a truth that transformed my life. The implication of the supremacy of Scripture is this: Human philosophy and its syllogisms and proofs do not lead us to believe in God. Everything that we know about God and his plan of salvation through his Son Jesus Christ is discerned not by mortal intellect but, instead, by God's revelation to us in his Word. The Reformed faith holds that the Holy Spirit breathed out the very Word of the triune God and is the wisdom of God that saves us and guides us to God's purpose for our lives. Quite succinctly, we cannot reason our way to the knowledge of God or the pathway to eternal life.
Rather, the supremacy of Scripture means that God has condescended to us in Fatherly love and provided everything that we need for faith and life in His inerrant and infallible Word. To believe in the supremacy of Scripture is to believe that God’s Word is also sufficient to carry out the plan of God, including the Great Commission. God's Word says that when that Word is spoken it has the power to accomplish all that God has designed. “God’s Word will Accomplish It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it” (Isaiah 55:11). It is no wonder that the Bible becomes the central liturgical movement within a Reformed sacred assembly, i.e. a worship service. As we see in Nehemiah 8, the Word of God is elevated, and the preaching is altogether grounded in and proved by the inerrant and the infallible word of God: “Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel” (Nehemiah 8:1 NKJV).
The Christ presented through the Reformed Faith changed my life by showing me that evangelism is not dependent upon man's work but upon God and His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There is something else that was transformative about this doctrine: the Reformed Faith teaches us that we can live in the tension of the mysteries (of life, of faith, and, yes, of God) and lay the burdens of our limited understanding at the foot of the cross. For the Scripture shows us that at the cross of Christ the Scripture became the only possible response to the riddle of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus — God in the flesh being killed, the incomprehensible act by human beings He created, on the cursed timber of a tree that He made and abandoned to the farthest edges of human sorrow by the Father who sent the Son. The Bible advances truth, defends the revelation of God, and even allows the apparent conflicts to stand without apology or explanation. For, “In the beginning was the Word . . .(John 1:1).
That leads me to share the second great belief of the Reformed Faith that transformed my life.
2. The beliefs of the Reformed Faith emphasize the sovereignty of God.
Romans 8:28-30 is a powerful passage that not only unfolds the nature of Almighty God but how his sovereignty impacts the life of every true believer:
Romans 8:28-30 (NKJV): “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30 NJKV).
When I heard the preaching of the truth of God’s Providence, that is, of the absolute sovereignty of God over all of creation, I heard and received a doctrine that helped me to make sense of life —the pain in my life, the pain in my past, and the possibility (no the promise) that God transforms the very things that seek to destroy us into the things that save us. The sovereignty of God is most clearly demonstrated in the crucifixion and resurrection of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. The cross was an instrument of pain that became an insignia of praise. The cross was a symbol of suffering that was transformed into the sign of salvation. The cross was the devil’s diabolical scheme to upset the plans of God, but under the universal law of God's sovereignty, the Satanic scheme became God’s divine design for redemption to bring about Paradise Regained (John Milton).
This means that even those things that were done for evil become, in the hands of a loving and altogether powerful God, the very things that God uses to bring about good for his people. When I heard this doctrine expounded, I was born again. There was a Mike Milton before that moment there was a different Mike Milton after that moment. I believe with all of my heart that the preaching of the sovereignty of God is a strong but divinely effective medicine for the healing of the pathologies of the human soul. And yet, the doctrine requires that we bow in humility before our Creator, this glorified King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The efficacy of the power of the sovereignty of God requires that we acknowledge that God is God and we are not. The sovereignty of God demands that we yield our emotions, our intellect, and all that we are, to God as the ruler and sustainer of all things. This is the belief of the Reformed Faith that changed my life for good. It is the belief of the Reformed Faith — the great teaching of biblical Christianity — that will also change your life now and for eternity.
If I were asked what is the third belief of the Reformed Faith that most affected my life I would have to point to this Biblical truth:
3. The beliefs of the Reformed Faith are centered in the truth of God's Covenant of Grace.
There are many, and I was one of them at one time in my life, who associated Calvinism primarily with predestination and the mysteries of the secret councils of God. However, the truth of that “mysterious” doctrine taught in Scripture flows from the centering idea – the divine revelation — of the Covenant of Grace. When I heard this truth taught, it not only opened my eyes to read Scripture with understanding but allowed me to see all of God's promises, even the glimpses of his glorious secret councils, through the framework of God's covenants.
The Reformed Faith teaches that the Bible reveals both a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace. God spoke this covenant, agreement, with Adam: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[a] of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). In Systematic Theology, Louis Berkhof wrote, “The principle of the covenant of works was: the man that does these things shall live thereby; and this principle is reiterated time and again in Scripture, Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11, 13, 20; Luke 10:28; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12.”
God gave a promise to Adam and Eve that if they would faithfully follow him in all their ways imperfect obedience they would have eternal life and enjoy an eternal Eden. The sins of Adam and Eve brought about the other side of that covenant of works: that God would demand justice for the violation of the covenant. That justice would include death, the loss of paradise, and a hostile relationship between creation and mankind. However, God provided another promise: that he would fulfill and provide what he required. God would send forth His only begotten Son to live the life we could never live and die the death that should have been ours. In the “First Gospel” in the Bible God promises a Redeemer: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15 ESV).
This Covenant of Grace whereby God would fulfill and assume the penalties of our violation of the covenant of works is the scarlet thread that holds every book of the Bible together as one. According to Lexham Theological Dictionary, the Covenant of Grace is a “covenant in which God offers all the benefits of salvation to sinners who, by God’s gracious ordination, receive them by faith in Christ.
Covenant Theology
The Covenant of Grace develops throughout Scripture as we see it codified with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and, finally, with the very mediator of the New Testament, our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus’ perfect life is exchanged for our sins: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Just as a celestial beam from God’s Word opened my eyes and allowed me to see the Holy Scriptures as a singular story of God's grace and love to reverse the Fall of Mankind through the covenant of grace fulfilled in Jesus Christ, that same light comes to anyone who trusts in Christ to be the resurrected and reigning God-in-the-flesh, the righteousness of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Not only does this knowledge of the Covenant of Grace bring about a greater understanding in the reading of Scripture it provides a framework for all of life. Covenant theology, then, is not merely a belief in a particular doctrine but is, rather, a comprehensive worldview that allows us to see the love and grace of God at work in the world despite the sin and shame that is present (John 3:16).
These truths that transformed me are but a few of the more comprehensive statements of faith that articulate the system of doctrine taught in Scripture called "the Reformed Faith." These truths have transformed my life as a husband and father, a friend, a son, a neighbor, and a man. The Reformed Faith has allowed me to enter the pulpit with full confidence that when I faithfully proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, I can be sure that God's Word will bring about God's plan. The worst offender, the most woeful victim is the object of God's love and grace. Nothing can withstand the supremacy of Scripture, the sovereignty of God, and the covenant of grace. These are the beliefs of the Reformed Faith that give me the confidence to preach, confidence to live life, and confidence in Jesus Christ and His Word to face sickness, sorrow, and one day, death.
These are the beliefs of the Reformed Faith that are indeed truths that transform.
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Listen to the song He's in Control by Dr. Michael A. Milton
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